By Moonlight
by Bluelady14
Summary: While on Ember Island with the Gaang, Zuko and Katara have their ups and downs. Set after the Southern Raiders. Zutara and later Taang and Sukka. Chapter Five: I think this is going to be taking a break, until I can come up with an actual story line.
1. Chapter 1

Sitting around the bonfire on the beach with the Gaang was one of the happiest times of my life. It was so different from sitting with Ty Lee, Azula and Mai on the beach. It was so much happier. We were just having a good time. Telling stories and teasing each other playfully. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere. I felt accepted into the jumbled mess of Air Nomad, Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom. Who knew I would become friends with the very people I despised less than a year ago? I still remember the first day I met her. I remember the conflict I saw in her deep blue eyes. Fear and defiance battled within her. But fear won over when I seized her grandmother. But now she is completely different. She is never afraid to take on a challenge or speak her mind. I've changed too. I would do anything to protect any one of them. Is this what it is like to be one of the good guys? Uncle always knew I had it in me, but I didn't believe him. And then I betrayed him. I wasn't there for him when he needed me. I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I tuned out of their conversation. For what seemed like ages, I just stared into the dancing flames, thinking about my past decisions.

"Zuko are you okay?" I heard a female voice ask.  
It was Katara. She looked at me with the concern of a mother in her eyes. The whole group shifted their focus onto me.

"I'm fine" I said stiffly.  
I didn't want to reveal any of my weakness to her. But she persisted.

"Do you want to talk about it? Its not good to keep those feelings bottled up inside-"

"I said I was fine, okay?" I interrupted.

"Okay" she said dejectedly.

"Don't worry about him so much Sugarqueen. He can take care of himself." Toph added rather smugly.

Even when she laughed at this, I saw so much hurt in her deep blue eyes, I immediately wanted to make her feel better. I wanted to make it up to her.  
The night flew by and soon everyone had gone back to the house, leaving me and Katara by the fire.

"Do you want to walk back to the house now?" I asked.

She silently nodded her head and got up from the log we had been sitting on.  
Together we headed up the path and stopped at the edge of a grassy cliff. The same cliff I used to play on with my mother. When our family was actually happy. Katara tipped her head up towards the sky and said,

"Isn't the moon beautiful tonight? Its full."

As I looked up, my eyes lingered on the moonlit figure in front of me. I simply nodded my head, because I could not find any words for her beauty. I took a step to stand right behind her. I felt her shiver slightly, so I carefully wrapped my arms around her, trying to warm her up. I wanted to tell her that she was far more beautiful than the moon on any night of the year. Full or not.  
Katara stepped away to look me in the eyes. I felt my face grow warm as her blue eyes connected with mine. By just looking at her, I knew she had forgiven me for snapping at her.

While we walked back to the house, shoulder to shoulder, I impulsively grabbed Katara's hand. I looked to her for signs of discomfort, but found none.  
Once we reached the steps of the house Aang ran down into the courtyard to greet us. She released my hand and embraced him in a hug.

"I was worried when you didn't come back." Aang said innocently.

He had the stupidest grin on his face. I was irritated by this. She wasn't his property or anything. But she wasn't mine either. Avatar or not, I wanted to pummel him. But instead of taking any action, I pointedly glared at Aang's back, on our way into the house. Katara went to walk Aang to his room, so I hung back in the kitchen to scrounge up something for Katara and I to eat. All we had at the moment were firegummies and some fresh sunpears, so I set them out on a few plates and carefully arranged glasses of water on the wooden counter. I then headed upstairs to find Katara. I heard her singing a Water Tribe lullaby to his snores. She finished and came out of the room, almost running into me.

"He just fell asleep"

"You really care about him, don't you?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes. I do." she said softly.

She had such a confused look on her face, I wasn't sure if she was lying or not. I didn't want to know anymore. I couldn't bear the thought that she loved the little Airbender. But why would she love me when I all have ever done is hurt her?

"I put some umm...food and water out in the kitchen, if you want."

"Are you going to join me?" Katara almost pleaded, hope shining in her eyes.

"No. I need some time to think." I said a little too harshly.

She nodded, the light from her eyes gone, and proceeded to the stairs, catching my eye just as she disappeared down the staircase. I numbly walked into my room and flopped onto the bed. I stared at the ceiling, wondering how I got myself into this mess with Katara. She is so bossy and needs to know your every little feeling. And yet, I always feel like I need to her. Then it hit me. I had hurt her twice in the span of one night. I sat there frozen for few moments, then sprang out of bed and raced down to the kitchen to apologize to Katara.

Thoughts? Should there be a Chapter 2?


	2. Chapter 2:Conversation

I raced to the kitchen, almost tripping down the stairs, twice. When I finally stumbled in, Katara was nowhere in sight. Panicking, I ran out into the courtyard and saw a figure standing in front of the stone fountain, obviously bending something. But she wasn't bending water, it looked darker and heavier than water. As I got closer, I realized that she was bending blood. But I had seen Katara bloodbend before. I remember clearly that she had controlled the blood within the being. As she danced around with it, obviously taking more effort to bend than pure water, I took a cautious step towards the fountain. Before drawing any closer, I called out her name shakily. She turned around startled, almost splattering the blood on the pavement. At that moment I felt my own blood run cold.  
"Katara. What are you doing?"  
She just blinked at me, still shocked I had caught her.  
"I mean, I know you're bloodbending, but why?" I blurted and couldn't stop. "And whose blood is it?"

"Its mine." She responded carefully, not looking at me directly.

I gave her a wary look, but before I could ask any more questions, she bent the blood back into a small cut in her arm. I must have had a horrified expression on my face, because she reacted instantly.

"It doesn't hurt at all. Promise." She tried to reassure me.

I just grunted in response. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed the untouched plate of sunpears. By the time I got back, Katara had already healed her arm. We sat on the cold, stone steps, setting the plate in between us. For a few minutes we just sat there, stuffing ourselves with the sweet pears. Finally, she broke the silence,

"I want to be practiced, in case I ever need this skill. I despise this ability, but as long as I have it, I want to use it for good."

"Who taught you?" I asked a little more bluntly than I had intended.

"A woman who was captured in a Fire Nation raid. She was from the Southern Water Tribe, like me. She escaped the prison where they were holding her in, by developing bloodbending. We passed through the town she was living in and heard rumors of people disappearing during the full moon. Eventually we found out it was her. Before she was locked up again, she blackmailed me into learning it. I didn't want to learn and I never want to use it like that."

Her voice trailed off and her eyes glazed over as she got lost in her thoughts. I had always assumed that someone close to her would have taught her such a dark art. But with Katara, I was always being surprised. That was one of the many things I loved about her. Another long silence ensued. Finally I decided to lighten the mood a little.

"Do you want to hear another of Uncle's favorite jokes?"

"As long as you remember the whole thing." she smirked.

"What is a karate expert's favorite beverage?"I said, grinning like an idiot.

"What?" she asked, playing along.

"Kara-tea"

I earned a face palm and a splash of water on the front of my tunic. Being a firebender, I easily dried off, chased her over to the fountain and splashed her back. After a few minutes of playful splashing, Katara froze my feet to the ground. Just to amuse her, I didn't unfreeze myself, but started to complain and begged her to unfreeze me herself. She obliged after teasing me a little about my laziness. So I chased all the way back to the grassy cliff, where we had first stopped tonight, and collapsed on the grass. She easily flopped down next to me. I flipped over so that I could gaze at the stars. They reminded me of her eyes, the way they sparkle.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"The war." I quickly responded, hoping she wouldn't notice.

"Oh."

We didn't speak for a long time, both of our minds wandering off.

"We're going to win, you know." she said confidently.

"But what if we don't?"

I was worried. Worried that I wouldn't be able to protect everyone. Worried that I could lose any one of them at any moment during the battle. I felt the weight of my responsibility to the world. It was my family who has caused all this pain and suffering. The genocide of the Air Nomads, the death of Katara's mother, everything. All of it was my fault.

"Zuko, we're all scared, but we can't think like that. We have to do our best to win."

"But what if it isn't enough? How can I reverse what my family has done for a hundred years?"

"It will be enough." she insisted, giving me another deep look. "It has to be."

Changing the subject, Katara asked, "What do you think will happen after the war?"

"Well, my Uncle will become Fire Lord, end the war and I'll do my best to learn from him. We'll need an ambassador from the Southern Water Tribe. I believe it should be you. You understand the need of all people and have the will and strength to help them. What about you? What do you envision?"

She hesitated for a moment before responding. "I want to help with recovery efforts. Perhaps study in medicine. I eventually want to settle down and start a family"

An image of _our family_ flashed up in my mind. I could see it perfectly. Her dressed in the deep red robes of the Fire Lady, hand resting on our daughter's shoulder. I could see her feeding the turtleducks with me. She would teach our son waterbending and I would teach our daughter firebending. It was all too perfect. She interrupted my thoughts by saying thoughtfully,

"If we win, I'll be your ambassador. If we don't... it won't matter if we don't. "

I simply smiled at her. Half joking or not, I was going to hold her to her word.

After that, we easily chatted for a long time about the similarities and differences between our cultures, beliefs and traditions. In the Water Tribes, a boy must undergo a ceremony called ice dodging before they can be considered a man. I would have never had a chance to do that with my father, not that he would participate anyway. Thoughts lingering on my father, I look back at to Katara and saw that she had fallen asleep. So I carefully lifted her peaceful form off the grass and began the long way back to the house.

I was extra careful not to stumble on the stairs this time. We finally reached her room and I gently placed her down on the bed. I shuffled around the room looking for a blanket. Finding none, I realized that she must have left hers downstairs. So I went to my own room to retrieve mine. It was just my natural instinct to care for Katara. Laying the blanket on her, I was about to leave, when I stopped in the doorway to give her one last look. I wanted so badly to be the one who got slept next to her every night, to fall asleep to her soft breathing, to wake up to her smile, to be the one she loved.


	3. Chapter 3:The Others

I left her doorway and made my way to my own room. For a while I sat on the edge of my bed, thinking about what to do next. Should I do anything or should we continue as usual? Undecided, I climbed onto my blanket-less bed, knowing that it was worth it.  
I woke up later than usual. The sun was already up and I could hear Sokka loudly complaining about how little food we have. Causally stretching, I dragged myself out of bed to go claim breakfast.

"You're up late." Toph commented the moment I set foot in the courtyard.

"I know. You missed morning meditation and firebending forms with Aang" Katara said worriedly.

She paused from her work to look up at me. I scanned the courtyard and the young Avatar was nowhere in sight.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"Still sleeping." Sokka chimed in between bites.

"I'll go wake him." I practically growled.  
I hesitated for a moment. It was my fault for sleeping in so late too. Maybe I should give Aang a break. We've been training so hard and he's made a lot of progress. Not a master, but he was doing well.

"Let the kid sleep Zuko. Haven't you worked him enough?"

I whirled around at Toph, expecting another smug look, but found only a blank expression. Was she actually looking out for Aang? The rest of the Gaang seemed just as puzzled. Sokka, being the person he is, simply shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of his moo-sow bacon.

"Fine, but he will be spending the day firebending to make up for this morning."

"No way! Twinkletoes still has lots of work on his earthbending. You can't hog him the whole day." she said, contradicting her previous order to leave him alone.

"Hog whom?" Aang asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes as he emerged from the house. He took the remaining plate and cascaded some porridge onto it.

"You. Hothead over here wants you to spend your whole day firebending." Toph announced haughtily, jabbing a finger in my direction.

"Please no! I'd rather spend the day with Toph" he pleaded.

"Really?" Katara asked, rather surprised.

We all knew how aggressive Toph was when it came to Earthbending training. I glanced back at her to analyze her reaction, but she kept her empty composure.

"Why don't you spend half the day with Toph then take the rest off?"

"What? He can't take the day off from firebending. I won't allow it."

"All in favor of Sugarqueen's idea?" Toph asked.

Everyone but me raised their hands. I was outvoted.

"Fine. But just for today." I said sharply.

Aang eagerly nodded in agreement.

"Thank you Sifu Hothead."

"Don't call me that!" I shouted as Toph dragged him away from his breakfast.

Everyone went about their normal routines. Except me. Sokka and Suki ambled off in a cloud of love for "non-bender practice". We all knew they weren't practicing fighting skills. After being caught by Toph for the third time, they gave up on trying to hide it. Slightly disgusted, I looked around for something to occupy my time becasuse I was totally thrown off my schedule. I saw Katara cleaning up the morning dishes. Seeing no one else was going to help her I decided on my morning task.

"Do you want some help with those?"

"Umm Sure, if you don't have anything else to do." she said cheerfully. "Why don't you grab a rag from the hallway cabinet to dry them with?"

"I don't need it."

I created a small flame in the palm of my hand and showed it to her.

Her eyes widened slightly and she nodded. I picked the remaining dishes and followed her into the kitchen.

"Set them down on the left side of the sink." she mused, with her back turned on me.

I did as she commanded and took a step back. She spirited to the sink and started waterbending.

I never knew washing dishes could be beautiful. But Katara proved me wrong. Just the way she moved was irresistible. I lost all focus watching her skillfully bend the water in delicate yet forcefully circles to scrub off the clinging, excess food. Once finished, she set them down for me to dry. It took a few tries to get the temperature just right so that I didn't break them in half. When I did, she merely laughed at me and demanded I fetch a new one. We fell into an easy pattern and conversation. I was curious as to why no one ever helped her clean up or do chores.

"It really isn't a big problem. In my village I did much more work than this while Sokka swung his boomerang around." she said in mock bitterness.

I was about to protest when Suki burst in, obviously miffed at something or someone.

"What did he do now?" Katara asked unsurprised, as if this had happened before.

Not that this thought was unreasonable. It was in Sokka's nature to unintentionally anger the women of the group.

"He just...Ughh." she groaned as she eyed me carefully.

I easily took the hint.

"I'm going to look for Sokka."

"He's out in the back." Suki said, poison seeping from her words.

Rushing out like a firebomb was about to go off, I made my way to go face Sokka.

I found him on the steps leading to the beach, moping.

"What's up, buddy?" I asked as casually as I could.

"Suki is mad at me." Sokka said glumly.

"I figured that much. What did you do?"

"I told her that I missed the Kyoshi make-up. Then she accused me of only liking her with make-up. I didn't mean it like that. I don't know what I was thinking." he trailed off.

I was at a loss for words. Sokka made a stupid move, but it was a simple misunderstanding.

"Just say you're sorry. Girls usually respond to that." I suggested.

It was the best I could come up with.

"Okay. By the way Toph wanted me to tell you that she want a talk with you after lunch.

"Great." I grumbled flatly.

A talk with Toph was a privilege and punishment all in one.

Sokka peeled himself off the step and went to apologize to Suki. After he had gone, I hauled myself from the ground and headed back to the kitchen. However when I arrived, the kitchen was empty. Wondering where everyone had gone I went looking for Katara, who obviously didn't want to be found. I gave up after about half and hour. On my way back to my room I saw that everyone had gathered in the courtyard finishing lunch. Exactly how stupid could I get?

"Let me guess. You ran around looking for us while we were all here?" Toph asked with confidence.

"What makes you think that?" I tried, not that I expected it to work.

"I could feel you tramping all over the whole place."

Knowing she had won, I scooped up an extra bowl of rice and sat next to Sokka. He was in a noticeably better mood than before, his arm draped around Suki. I let out a heavy sigh and quickly consumed my late lunch. Directly after I had finished Toph proclaimed she wanted to drag me off to talk in front of the group. Everyone except Sokka gave us puzzled glances.

"Are you going to take a hundred years or what?" Toph complained, sounding very irritated.

I knew not to get on her bad side, so I hastily followed her, unsure of my fate.


	4. Chapter 4: Toph

"So what did you need to talk to me about?"

I could hear my voice shaking a little.

"It's Aang. Ever since you got back with Katara hes been ...clingy. Like this morning. He wanted to go easy on me during training." she huffed after a few moments.

"He should know better than to try that." I laughed.

Before I gave her any advice I had to know one thing. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're the only one who would actually listen. I don't need another lecture from Katara or sarcastic jokes from Sokka. I want an answer." she said simply.

Her reasoning made complete sense, but it wasn't like her to seek out help. Keeping this in mind I carefully replied,

"Maybe he likes you?"

What felt like an iron hammer slammed into my arm.

"Don't even suggest that Hothead." Toph shouted angrily.

But under her frown I saw a tiny hint of blush. Confident I hit a nerve, I continued.

"Haven't you thought about it at all?"

"Not really." Toph answered quickly. With uncharacteristic haste she asked, "Why?"

"Because I think he does." I teased, earning myself another punch.

"Oww." I complained.

"Serves you right. Besides what about you and Sugarqueen?"

My stomach dropped.

"W-what about us?" I stammered. Toph smirked at her easy victory.

"Don't bother lying. Do I have to remind you that you can't get anything past me?" she asked, grinning even wider.

I let out a heavy sigh, knowing she had me cornered.

"If nothing gets past you,then why are you asking me about it? You should already know." I tried.

"I do. But I want to hear you say it." she gloated.

"You just love doing that don't you?" I muttered darkly.

"Pretty much."

There was a long pause before I spoke again.

"There isn't anything between us. She and the Aang." I took in a deep breath. "They're together."

I didn't mean to sound bitter about it, but somehow it came out that way.

"Not officially." she reminded me sharply.

"But shes going to choose him. She was destined to find him and to choose him." I said, the bitterness creeping into my words again.

"Our destiny is not so simple." Toph said quietly, reminding me of Uncle.

I gave her a bewildered look and earned another punch.

"Well, thats all I needed to talk to you about. I'm going back." she said cheerily.

I picked myself up and headed back. When I arrived Sokka was finishing a lengthy story about the time he had seen a legendary polar sea bird. Katara was passionately shooting holes in it.

"I swear it landed right in front of me!"

"Sokka, I was with you on that hunting trip. Nothing happened." she argued.

I watched as they battled it out. When Sokka finally asked for our opinions, Katara naturally won. But what I didn't expect was the peaceful resolution. There were no grudges held or bitter feelings. Aang demonstrated a new airbending trick and we moved on. I was always being surprised by these people. And I wanted to keep it that way forever.

**A/N:** Sorry about this chapter being so short. High school is rough and I stupidly took on a new project for Sesskag. Plus I really am lost on this story. It doesn't have any real direction. Stuff is happening and thats all its got. So I'm considering dropping this for a while (or forever) and possibly starting a new Zutara fic. I was thinking a Modern AU. Let me know what you think, or if you have ideas on where this can go, because I certainly don't have any :P


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